Global Security Newswire

U.S. intelligence officials did not receive from Russia what could have been key advance information about one of the brothers suspected of carrying out the April bomb attack on the Boston Marathon, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday.

Moscow in 2011 warned the FBI regarding Tamerlan Tsarnaev's possible ties to Islamic militants. The notice was to some degree provoked by text messages between the man's mother and another family member that indicated Tsarnaev might want to become involved with extremists said to be involved in acts of violence in the Caucasus area, informed U.S. insiders said.

Sources said the text messages only became known to Washington about seven days after the April 15 attack that killed three people and injured hundreds at the finish line to the Boston Marathon. Tsarnaev, 26, was killed in a shootout with police later that week. His younger brother, Dzhokhar, has been charged in connection with the explosion of two crude bombs.

The incident led to renewed concerns about U.S. intelligence gathering and sharing efforts that are intended to head off such events. The withheld information also points to continued complications in the relationship with Russia, even on the seemingly shared interest of preventing terrorism.

Details of the text messages would have brought greater scrutiny onto Tamerlan Tsarnaev, according to a number of officials.

They "would have allowed the bureau to open an investigation where you could track [Tsarnaev's] communications," said House intelligence committee Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.). "To me, that's where the ball really got dropped."